Instruments: acoustic and electric guitar/pedal and lap steel guitar/keyboards/accordion/banjo/electric bass
Born in Björna in the north of Sweden in 1967. Grew up in Örnsköldsvik, small town in north-east of sweden. Started to fool around on the piano at the age of four (still does, by the way). Formed my first proper band Scenskräck (Stage fright) playing the legendary Philicorda-organ at the age of 12. First band playing regular gigs was T-röd, formed in late 1981, including boy-wonder Magnus "Norpan" Eriksson on drums, later playing with Swedish big time artists like Ulf Lundell and Lars Winnerbäck. Played in loads of local bands in Örnsköldsvik in the early/mid eighties, most of them forgotten by everyone except for members and friends. The most important was Dansorkestern, contemporary melodic new wave-goth band with depressive, serious profile (Brända Barn, anyone?), led on stage by the charismatic singer Magnus Ullén (brother to Lottie and Inca who later formed William, sucessful female group in the early 90´s). The most active configuration of the band also included Urban Olsson on guitar, years later in hardcore band Mary Beats Jane.Started to get bored playing keyboards and switched to guitar as son as i had the possibillity. Made two EP:s with 60:s garage-revivelband Capt. Future And The Zapguns with my brother Johan and the legendary Johan Kugelberg (and we´re really talking legendary here, belive me! Try to googel that guy and you´ll understand...). I also produced some records in the semi-professionl eight track studio located in the youth house were we all rehearsed. One fine band i recorded was The Public Vein, who never got much attention when they existed, but nowdays their records are collectors items on e-bay.
Joined Kramfors-based garageband The Psychotic Youth late 1985 as organist/producer. Stayed on that train for ten years, six albums and a few hundred gigs. After a few years i switched over to dutys as bassplayer/harmony vocalist/and, tired of all fuckups on the road, inofficial and self explained tourmanager. The Roskilde festival -90 with Psychotic was a blast, still probably my biggest thrill on stage. Psychotic Youth developed over the years touching styles of 60´s revieval garage, rockabilly, surf punk, "happy metal" and power pop, always with energic singer/guitarist/songwriter Jörgen Westman as the leading man (when journalists asked for a definition of our style, we used to say "Kristen Bögpunk", translation impossible...). The band still exist when the nowday members feel for it, so i still enjoy a revival gig with Jörgen and the other guys every now and then, now back on the farfisa organ.
But back to the eighties... Landed my first professional job as a musician as guitarplayer with Gina Jacobi Band in november- 86 via old pal Norpan. A bit too early, wrong instrument and probably wrong band for me. Gina was (and, i guess, still is) a very talanted composer/musician, but she rather needed a slick professional, not a nervous, young rocker with a raunchy Marshall amp and a cheap copy of a Gibson 335 impossible to keep in tune.... I was a decent keyboard player at that time, but i wasn´t experienced enough to handle the six string in a professional context. So, i actually got fired for the first and only time in my career. Gina didn´t have the guts to tell me face to face thou, but did the old trick: "split the band" and reformed one week later whithout me!
But soon i was back on track, and moved to Gothenburg with the guys from P.Y. late 1987 after the realese of our second album. Psychotic Youth wasn´t very active at that time thou, so i joined Gothenburg band Alias Smith And Jones as a guitarist. The band was formed by Jönsson and Crippa from legendary punkrockband Attentat, and worked hard for success a few years. Success never arrived thou, and the band split up in 1989 after a few EP´s and lots of touring.
The 90´s became my decade of decadence, catching up with the faboulus Gothenburg-based band Badliver in -91. The band started as Bad Liver & Hans Brustna Hjärtan by musicians and actors from Angeredsteatern in the late 80´s, playing Tom Waits songs translated to swedish. I was discovered by the guys in B.L. playng accordion the tram a wet midsummer night -89. Badliver was more of a project-based community than a band (or a social experiment, as one old member said), and maybe we were the hardest partying band in town (ok, except for The Stonefunkers...). But there was a hell lot of talent in the house with multi musicians like Leif Jordansson, Bebe Risenfors, Ulf Sjölander and Danne Johansson amongst others. Some of the members later went on working on the main theater scenes in Sweden and playing with legends like Tom Waits and Elvis Costello (and, eh, Ray Davies...). In Badliver i was ordered to learn to play the pedal steal guitar by the older guys, and so i did. Bebe bought one for me, the first challange was to put it together when it arrived on the train from Stockholm a cold day in januari-92. It took me a few years to handle it, but it soon became my favourite instrument. So in Badliver i started as a bassplayer/accordionist, switched to mainly keyboard duties when Bebe moved to Stockholm, and ended up as a steelpicker in spinoff country project Gillis Jordan and the Bad Lovers. The finest moments during my years under the the Badliver flag were never caught on tape but will stay forever in my heart. No real success in Sweden, but we were always kings in Norway. Or rather in Oslo. At least around Solli plats...
Around 1990 i also had a few years of chaos and great fun with good friend Per Dahlberg, nowdays TV/filmproducer, in those years young, angry rocker on a mission to shake some action. His solotrip Dalbergs was a bit semi-accoustic, but the next project, Submachines, formed in -91 with former Commando M Pigg-member Anders Karlsmark was not... Sequencers & computers together with heavy rockriffs. We could have made it big time, but time wasn´t ready. Per was also extramember on harmony vocals and stage mayhem in The Psychotic Youth during the early 90´s.
My god, all these bands in the 90´s... The main venue in Gothenburg at this time was Magasinet, where i played 20-25 times 90-94. Aside with touring and recording with Psychotic Youth and Badliver and working as a theater musician in Gothenburg and Stockholm, i played sessions and live gigs with bands and artists like The Mole Session, Electric Eskimoes (with Kalle Gustavsson, later in Soundtrack Of Our Lives), Weeping Willows, The Sonic Walthers, Gordon, Mufflon 5, Wish, Paus (one-off project by Peter Svenson and Jocke Berg, leading men in swedish hotshot-bands Cardigans and Kent), Sator, Peter Dolving (later in Mary Beats Jane and Haunted), Sam Vesterberg (former lead singer in 70´s progressiv rockband Nynningen) Smash Hit Wonders and many others. Badliver sucessfully backed famous senior artists like Owe Thörnkvist, Towa Carson and Alf Robertsson and made several sucessfull self-produced collaborations, some of them with much talanted gothenburg actor/singer Timo Nieminen.
In early 1998 me and my pedal steel guitar catched up with rookie band Alimony led by singer/songwriter Fredrik Öster. What can i say? Fantastic songs, great band wich made several magical gigs and an ok album, not capturing the live spirit but getting top reviews in nantional press. The fire went out when original guitarplayer Anders Lindström left the band early 2000 after a busy year. The songwriting capacity of Fredrik in the late 90´s was just amazing thou, and if we could just have captured that magic vibe anything could have happened...
In the late 1999, i tasted my first comercial success (althoug i didn´t get a single penny from it...) Me and Bernt Andersson, multi talanted gothenburg musician and arranger, were the musical conductors for a charity record project for the Salvation Army. The brilliant idea came from former musician, nowdays AD Håkan Sandsjö: take the classical salvation army songs and let them be performed by popular artists in new arrangements. Totta Näslund, Freddie Wadling, Louise Hoffsten, Rolf Wikström and Stefan Sundström were some of the most popular artists contributing on the record, but many of the artist who would end up on the record were not really what you can call "comercial successfull recording artists", rather people we liked and knew would do a great job: Mirja Burlin, Åsa Gustavsson and Sam Vesterberg amongst others. Many of the recordings were done live in the studio, mixed down the same day. That didn´t stop the record "En Salig Samling" to sell almost a quarter of a million copys (at the time triple platinum in Sweden), bringing a neat sum of 15 000 000 SEK to the salvation armys´social work for homeless people. During a few crazy months in the spring of 2000, one out of every ten records sold in Sweden was "En Salig Samling"... Well done boys and girls!
The following years of the new decade i slowed down a bit, settled down and got my wonderful kids Alfred and Heli. I studied musicology for a few years at the university of Gothenburg and played quite a lot with local band Valdemar, led by rock-doc and good friend Valle Erling. Valdemar also included spin off-projects wich gave the opportunity to meet and play with lots of talented artists like Kajsa Grytt, Love Olzon, Tomas Andersson-Wij, Magnus Lindberg, Mattias Hellberg, Stefan Andersson, Carla and Plura (from Eldkvarn, fine Swedish classical rockband) and many more. I also made a tour in 2002 with Lars Demian, european-styled singer/songwriter with great songs to play for an accordionist. Session work these years included Gothenburg acts like Björn Olsson, Embassy and Hanif.
In 2003 i joined the houseband at Slussens Pensionat, owned and ruled by chief/singer/composer/living legend Robert "Biggles" Sohlberg. Slussen is a resort located in a astonishing beutiful environment at north-east of Orust, a big island 80 km north of Gothenburg. The capacity of the venue is about 150 people, but every summer top artists from Sweden fight about the avalible dates to come there to play. Most of the attractive dates Biggles keep for his own band, Big Is Less... I´ve got many happy memories from this place. No soundcheck, no setlist, just go up on stage, play music and enjoy. That´s the way, if you ask me! Cheers to Biggles - voc, Tommy Sahlin- git and voc, Fredrik Kjellberg, bass and showdancing, Daniel Gibson, drums and voc, Big Is Less 2003-2005!
In april -05, the first gig for the season at Slussen, we had the frontman from the Kinks, Ray Davies in the audience. We made quite a sloppy gig as i remember it. I had a chat with Ray after the gig, and i remember he liked the way i treated my accordion. Little did i know he looked for a new keyboard player to his backing band, and eight months later after meeting him a few times, Ray appeared backstage at a gig we had at Trädgårn in Gothenburg and asked if i wanted to go on tour with him. -I thought you´d never ask, was my clever answer... Suddenly i found myself in London rehearsing with Ray and his band. And the next moment i was in the US, touring from coast to coast. Playing three sold out gigs at Manhattans coolest venue Irwing Plaza in march-06 was a blast! And it´s for sure a thrill to share stage with one of rock musics most important performers and songwriters of all time. And the other chaps in the band: Dick Nolan-bass, Toby Byron- drums and Mark Johns-guitar, well, not the worst bunch of guys i played with... After Mark chosed to go back to the land of the kangaroos, new axeman Milt McDonald joined the band for a brittish tour in may -07. I would say that configuration of the band turned out to be the mightiest combo i ever had the fortune of being a part of.
But life goes on when you´ve landed safe at home. Mainly i work in Gothenburg with different projects and artists. In september -06 i played with Plura and the other guys from Eldkvarn on the recording of live album "Kärlekens Låga" in Annedalskyrkan, Gothenburg, a brilliant piece of work if you ask me. In december -06 i contributed on the album "Earthly Greetings" with Eurovision Song Contest-duo Stefan Andersson and Aleena Gibson. I´m really looking forward to play these songs live in a near future. I´m also doing some work both with Timo Nieminen and another multi-talanted Gothenburg singer/actress: Åsa Gustavsson. Since 2005 i live on Brännö outside Gothenburg, where there´s always lots of music going on. When i´ve got the time for it, i happily sit in with local bands De Ökända and Brännöpojkarna. I´ve also got the band The Green Giant together with fellow Brännö-citizens Henrik Wallgren and Babo, the King of the Djembe. I´ve also got gigs coming up with hobby project "Riktiga Karlar", a faboulus countryband led by Göran "Guran" Blomgren, the main PA-man in Gothenburg who for sure know where to put the capo... Another great band i play regular gigs with, mostly at Jazzhuset, Gothenburg is Luxury Lineup. The band plays country and 60´s pop and soul under the supervision of singer Kent Norberg from Sator. L.L. also includes some of the best guys you can get for money in Gothenburg: Johan Håkansson - drums, Bengan Blomgren - git, Stefan Bellnäs - Bass. I´ve also got more gigs coming up with Ray, the Börje Salming of brittish rock (for those who don´t know, Börje was a legendary swedish icehockey player who just went on and on for decades as a world top player , and just didn´t care about his age ... )
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